[climbing an on-deck staircase to the stern as the ship is about to sink] Male Passenger: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death... Jack: You want to walk a little faster through that valley there? (TItanic, 1997)

It is a surprising photo because it is showing off what it is like for Obama to receive all of the Glory. We will see many more photos just like it. They please the boss , even if Michelle cannot stomach seeing any more of them.

I wonder, though, is the photographer in front of Obama, is he holding the camera over his shoulder or what? I always thought it strange the way Washington photographers scramble around trying to stay below table height, get out front for the best shot, trying and failing to be unobtrusive.

The Duke of Norfolk: Oh confound all this. I'm not a scholar, I don't know whether the marriage was lawful or not but dammit, Thomas, look at these names! Why can't you do as I did and come with us, for fellowship!

Sir Thomas More: And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?

Folks! What can I tell you about my next guest? This cat allowed himself to be adored, but not loved. And his success in show business was matched by failure in his personal relationship bag, now - that's where he *really* bombed. And he came to believe that show business, work, love, his whole life, even himself and all that jazz, was bullshit. He became numero uno game player - uh, to the point where he didn't know where the games ended, and the reality began. Like, for this cat, the only reality -- is death, man. Ladies and gentlemen, let me lay on you a so-so entertainer, not much of a humanitarian, and this cat was never *nobody's* friend. In his final appearance on the great stage of life - uh, you can applaud if you want to - Mr. Joe Gideon!

Andrews: [as the ship starts sinking faster, Andrews sees Guggenheim and his valet dressed in their most formal clothing] Mister Guggenheim... Your lifebelt... Benjamin Guggenheim: It was uncomfortable. We have dressed now in our best, and are prepared to go down like gentlemen.

You beat me to a description of the word "metaphysical", though I would've thrown a "dumbshit" or two in there.

Chip,

I had/have (not sure any more) a friend who's a bigshot photographer - Newsweek, U.S. World News, etc. - and watching him, and his collegues, work filled me with awe: there's actually a kind of ballet going on, that everyone involved understands, for getting position. The guys who can't "disappear" are relative newbies, and seniority counts.

I was reminded more of the opening scene in Gladiator, where the camera tracks from Russell Crowe's perspective as he walks through a trench lined with his Roman staff officers preparing to attack the German tribesmen.

It's repeated later in the film, when the now disgraced Maximus rallies his fellow gladiators before they go out to see what horrors Emperor Commodus has organized to meet them in the arena.

The film is the story of both a tragedy and a triumph. Which, in a way, Titanic is also.

Maybe, I'm just a rube or a young girl rube with a graying beard, but I liked "Titanic". Not the love story part, but the bigness, the tragedy, the reliving it as well as is possible without a time machine. It's an incredible story that puts fictional ones to shame.

Something about Geithner gives me the creeps. I don't know what it is. He would scare the hell out of me as the manipulative plotting murderous husband in a horror film. It's unfair, since I really know nothing of him personally but, he just looks very untrustworthy and relentless.

I think some see Dick Cheney the same way, but I don't. I think I could just outrun him and he does not look very stealthy.

I think the original is actually quite topical, especially given the relative number of theoreticians the president has on board (click to the last link to the data comparing Presidents and the number of real world experience people in their cabinets).

"I always thought that was just a dream, not the afterlife." Chris -- when the movie was out, there was a big debate in my office about whether that was a drem seqence or a death scene. I thought it obviously was a death scene, but some really smart people (including my then-future husband) thought it was a dream.

The end of the Titanic is so haunting because it happened just two years before WWI. The confidence of the passengers in the safety of their vessel was mirrored by their confidence in the ability of their leaders to wage a quick, successful war. There were over a million casualties in the Battle of the Somme alone. Western Civ was quite sinkable....I wonder if Obama's buoyant smile isn't like that of the Captain, greeting passengers on the first night out.

Honestly, I think still shots of human reactions are prone to wild misinterpretation - especially if the shutter speed is high enough, which must be common given the higher quality of modern digital cameras. There are an infinite number of motions one's face could go through when transitioning from one position to the next and what looks like one, easily discernible reaction in all likelihood is simply too quickly shot to reveal a subject's true response.

The distinct and interesting facial reactions captured here can easily prompt discussion and even analysis, but it's probably best to resist such temptations.